Three se­crets to a sen­sa­tional burger

(NC) Ab­so­lutely any time is the per­fect time to bite into a juicy, flame-grilled burger ooz­ing with a mix­ture of flavour­ful top­pings that are read­ily avail­able in your fridge and pantry. From the zest of a hot pep­per to the tang of a rel­ish and crunch of a de­li­cious Bick’spickle – the pos­si­bil­i­ties are end­less. Each re­gion of Canada, from the breath­tak­ing Rocky Moun­tains to the craggy east­ern shores, of­fers its own unique cui­sine and col­lage of flavours. This pro­vides even more op­tions to per­son­al­ize our burg­ers and there is noth­ing more sat­is­fy­ing than build­ing your own. As owner and chef at the Fidel Gas­tro food truck, here are my three se­crets to a sen­sa­tional burger:

Mix it up: I of­ten com­bine chuck and brisket meat, but a mix of ground beef and pork also works well. My sta­ple sea­son­ings are salt, pep­per and pa­prika. Use your hands to com­bine ev­ery­thing and shape into pat­ties.

Pre-chill then grill: Chill burg­ers in the fridge for about an hour. This will keep the meat from fall­ing apart when you fire it on the grill. Flip only once to pre­vent the meat from dry­ing, at five to six min­utes (per side) for a medium burger.

Pickle per­fec­tion: Pile on your favourite top­pings. Bick’s pick­les and spe­cialty prod­ucts are a must. There are so many op­tions – from baby dills to sliced beets to zesty onion rel­ish – there is a spe­cial some­thing for ev­ery­one and ev­ery palate. One of my favourite burger recipes is for the Stam­pede Slider. Any­one with a hearty ap­petite will en­joy a juicy beef burger glazed with bar­be­cue sauce, hot pep­per rings and topped off with a deep fried baby dill pickle. This burger is guar­an­teed to be­come a year-round sta­ple.